Rewards programs are becoming increasingly popular. Card or account issuers and account administrators, such as banks, for example, commonly offer their customers reward cards (e.g., credit cards, debit cards, stored value cards, or gift cards) that aim to encourage or induce customer behavior by rewarding all or select transactions. Rewards are typically based on any number of transaction particulars, such as spending levels, types of transaction, identity of merchant or vendor, location of transactions, or any other data or information that demonstrates user behavior. For example, a bank may provide incentives (e.g., rebates or discounts) on purchases made through a particular vendor or merchant. Rewards may also include cash-back deals where the customer earns a percentage of the transaction amounts as cash value that gets added to the customer's account.
In some cases, reward cards may be “branded” with the name of a particular sponsor or merchant so that use of the card earns the customer points that may be redeemed through the sponsor or merchant. For example, a credit card sponsored by an airline may reward the user with airline miles that may be redeemed for free or discounted travel. Likewise, some cards earn store dollars that can be used as virtual cash to make purchases through select merchants and vendors.
Although conventional systems and methods enable banks and sponsors to provide customers with a wide variety of reward categories, they nonetheless suffer from several notable drawbacks. For example, current systems and methods do not enable sponsors and account administrators to randomly or selectively identify and offer customers rewards on an ongoing basis. More specifically, current systems and methods do not enable sponsors or account administrators, for example, to prioritize or organize its customers' transactions and thereafter randomly (or according to an algorithm(s) or other selection technique) select at least one customer or transaction which will receive or redeem a reward. For example, current systems and methods do not enable a bank to organize its customers' transactions by date and time and thereafter select at least one customer or transaction which will be paid for by the bank. In addition, existing systems and methods do not allow users to selectively identify transaction(s), at the point-of-sale, that the customer would like to apply rewards to.
Thus, what is needed is a reward system and method that enables an account administrator or sponsor, for example, to prioritize or organize its customers' transactions and thereafter randomly (or according to an algorithm(s) or other selection technique) select at least one customer or transaction which will receive or redeem a reward.